//------------------------------//
// Chapter 19: Confrontation 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: Influx 
// by Lex the Pikachu 
//------------------------------//

Fallout Equestria: Influx

Chapter 19: Confrontation


A siren blared throughout the facility, and red warning lights flashed in every room and corridor. While the alarm blared, the large alicorn-like robot calmly walked into the control and up to the large monitor at the central console. The screen displayed a map of the Marejave, and there was a yellow blip moving towards their location on the map at a relatively high speed.

“Long range proximity alert was triggered along with a high magical energy warning,” Colonel Ironside explained through the speakers.

Unit-1000 sat patiently as it listened.

“Everything is progressing as predicted, although a little later than anticipated. Regardless, I-01 is now on its way.” The wireframe face of the colonel phased through the map to appear on the screen. He wore a sadistic smile as he looked down upon his creation. “When it arrives, let it reach the control room unobstructed. It can’t be allowed to retreat.”

“Affirmative, sir.”

“I may not be able to use you like I had originally intended, but once you have flesh and alicorn magic…” He then mumbled quietly to himself. “Hmmm. Absorbing the magic of three or maybe five of these manufactured ones might be enough.” He looked back up at the machine and resumed talking normally to it. “You may yet be able to be presented to the ponies of the Wasteland as the False Princess that they can fall behind.” He grinned darkly.

“Warning! Proximity Alert!” 

“Get into position; we don’t have much time.”

The machine gave a nod of acknowledgement and left the control room.

XXXXX

“Now her sudden hot-headedness makes sense now! The golden orange hair, the orange eyes, that teal and gold contrail. I recognise them,” Dr Pear said in astonishment. “Being coupled with an echo of Lightning Dust might not be a good thing in this situation, I hope it won’t be present when she engages him.”

“Dr Pear!” Nexus shouted to get her attention.

“Yes, Nexus?” She asked as she gave the machine her full attention.

“I need to go there. Ma’am shot off without waiting for any of us, and I fear she’ll fall for the Colonel’s trap if we don’t stop her.” 

“You’re right. The influence Lightning Dust will have on her mind right now will deliver her into his hooves.” Dr Pear looked around for the two alicorns that helped bring the group back to the old resort after their mission at the wreck of the RMS Luna. “Ah, Tratos, Oxanna. We need your assistance once more with a phase gate as soon as possible please.”

The two green alicorns approached the two robotic ponies. “Of course, doctor. Where would you like to go?” Tratos asked softly.

“Meadowlark Hill,” Nexus informed immediately.

“Hmm. Neither of us have been there, the area around the hill has been considered a no go area by the doctor.” Tratos said with a sigh.

“Then where is the closest you can get me?”

“I have been to the MASA Headquarters. Isn’t that in view of Meadowlark Hill?” Oxanna asked.

“It is, Oxanna,” Dr Pear clarified.

“Ok. We can Phase Gate to MASA HQ, and then I can teleport you to the hill.”

“Right, that will work,” Nexus agreed.

The sky was suddenly lit up by a bright flash and rings of expanding lightning and thunderclouds, which were soon followed by a loud thunderous boom.

“What in Celestia’s name was that?” Tratos asked in shock.

“That, my friends, is a sonic boom made of thunder and lightning. A Lightboom, I suppose,” Dr Pear summarised. “It would seem Crystal has broken the sound barrier. Very impressive.”

“We need to move now!” Nexus urged.

The alicorns nodded in agreement and began to channel their magic.

XXXXX

“Oh, how do I get you out, how do I get you out?” Pixie whined to herself as she paced around the old living quarters.

The young zebra filly, Xian, shivered and whimpered as she lay on the old sofa in the middle of the living room area. She kept her eyes on the rambling robot as it paced back and forth.

“I could teleport you out,” Pixie mused as she turned to look at the young filly with a hopeful smile, but that instantly fell. “Ohhh, no that won’t work.”

Pixie’s holographic disguise flickered as she nervously paced around the coffee table in front of the sofa.

“He would know I’m trying to disobey, and he’d also detect the magic… or ‘she’ would.” Pixie spoke that last part in a quivering voice, like she was afraid of this ‘she’ character.

The machine stopped pacing, gave a defeated sigh and sat down, her shoulders slumping as she looked over at the terrified filly. 

“I… I’m so sorry about all this, I… I never wanted to do any of this.” She sniffled. “I-I know it’s no excuse but I had no choice. I hope you can forgive me.”

Suddenly, the room was bathed in a warning red hue and a siren rung out.

“Warning! Proximity Alert!”

“What’s going…?” Pixie squeaked out in shock, but was interrupted when she began to receive a transmission.

“Unit-3, everything is going according to plan,” The voice of Colonel Ironside said in her head.

“C-colonel?!”

“I-01 is on its way. When I give you the order, terminate the captive.” 

“Wait, what!” Pixie cried in shock. “B-but sir, she’s just an innocent and helpless little filly.”

“She is a member of the enemy race that destroyed Equestria. She must be dealt with accordingly, and you WILL follow orders.”

Pixie began to shiver and cringed back like she smelt something foul. Her holographic disguise showed her grit her teeth, before she calmed down and her facial expression went blank. She then looked at the filly. Her blue eyes flashed crimson, making the filly whimper and cower deeper into the cushions.

“As you command, sir,” Unit-3 said, her sweet voice losing all emotion, becoming toneless and electronic.

XXXXX

“How long have the robots of this place been fucked?” A scavenger stallion asked as he kicked the sand-riddled husk of a Mr Hoofty robot that lay in front of the MASA Headquarters building. 

“I dunno, hun, but whatever screwed them must’ve hit them with something really hard to penetrate their bodies like this,” A scavenger mare replied as she examined the robot body where there was a large deep hole in its chassis.

The male scavenger looked up suddenly. He was a unicorn and his horn had begun to spark with yellow magic. 

“Ahh! What the fuck, where the hell did this magic surge come from?” He whined as he held a hoof to his temple.

His wife came up to his side to comfort him, when suddenly a purple spark of magic materialised in front of them, making them gasp and back away a few steps. The purple spark sputtered and fluctuated before it began to grow and develop into a large swirling disc of magic.

“Um, what’s going on?” The mare asked in surprise at the development.

“I don’t know, but that’s a lot of magic.”

After a few moments, the magic rippled and a large green alicorn stepped out. As the alicorn exited the swirling magic, the two ponies retreated to the bushes at the perimeter of the MASA HQ’s premises.  The large mare shook herself as she came fully out of the portal, casting off flecks of snow that rapidly melted in the Marejave heat. 

The two ponies huddled close together.

“An alicorn?!” The mare whispered quietly in surprise as she crouched down low behind a bush.

“Why would a Sanctuary Alicorn come here of all places?” The stallion whispered as he crouched down by his wife’s side.

The alicorn looked around several times to be sure there was no danger. She did notice two shapes partially hidden behind a bush, though she didn’t see them as a threat, but rather as curious locals. Satisfied that the coast was relatively clear, she turned to the swirling disc of magic and tapped it with her horn. The swirling magic stopped and then pulled back from the centre to reveal the ski lodge of the Alicorn Sanctuary, as if the disc was a window.

“It is safe to come through,” Oxanna called through the portal. The two scavengers sighed in relief as the alicorn appeared to have not noticed them.

The alicorn moved away from the portal slightly to give who was to come through some room. As she moved away, she gave the two scavengers a better view of the portal, and they gasped in surprise when they saw a skeletal robot with glowing red eyes and wearing scorched combat armour step through the portal.

“What the fuck is that?!” Both ponies practically yelled together.

The machine turned to look at the building. “Feels like it was only yesterday I tracked her here,” Nexus said to himself in nostalgia. His glowing red eyes widened slightly and he turned to the north. “She’s coming in fast. We don’t have much time. Please, teleport me to Meadowlark Hill now.”

“Of course.” The alicorn nodded as she approached the robot and placed a hoof onto his back, pressing it firmly so she had a grip on him. Her horn lit up with magic, and with a fizzle and a pop, she and the machine were gone in a flash.

The two scavengers stood up once the coast was clear and the portal closed. They looked at each other in bewilderment as they both had a single question on their minds.

“What just happened?”

XXXXX

Fruity cried in shock and surprise as he tumbled through the air. He had been knocked out of the sky by the shockwave of the Sonic Lightboom, which had disrupted the flow of air and pegasus magic in his wings. He flapped his wings uselessly for several long moments as he plummeted out of the sky and towards the desert below. He looked over his shoulder as his tumbling caused him to roll onto his back to see the ground rushing up to meet him, and he let out a startled cry.

“Oh bollocks to hell!” He began to use all his strength to kick out his fore and hind legs on his right side while at the same time closing the wing on his left side. The shift in weight got him to roll slightly in the air, and with the wind blowing against his still open wing it helped to push him all the way over. Once he had righted himself, he snapped out his left wing to stabilise himself and then put himself into a dive. He tucked his wings to his sides, narrowed his eyes and grit his teeth in concentration as he gained speed. Once he was sure he had gathered as much speed as he could get, he snapped open his wings. He pulled up and swooped around mere feet from the desert floor before he began to ascend back into the air.

“Oh thank the creator, I hope to never do that again,” He gasped in relief.

He rose back up to where he could still see a sparkling teal and golden yellow magical contrail shining brightly in the sky, and began to follow it as fast as his wings could carry him. If it wasn’t for the dire situation he found himself he would’ve marvelled at the beautiful and wondrous sight that his mare had been able to pull off as she broke the sound barrier. Even after several minutes, the rings of thunder clouds and lightning were still expanding out across the Marejave skies. 

“Oh, you fat bastard Fruity, you are so going on a diet and quitting drinking after this.” He groaned and panted as he struggled to keep his speed up.

After several more minutes of flying, the contrail was still visible but the expanding rings from the Lightboom had dissipated to leave clear blue skies. The purple pegasus was huffing and puffing as he pushed himself as hard as he could, determined to make it to the Facility and hopefully stop his fillyfriend from doing something stupid.

“Ugh, I need to work out more,” He panted tiredly.

“Hey little birdy. Wanna play?” A high-pitched and unusually happy voice called from behind him.

Startled by the sudden voice, Fruity looked back behind him and gasped when he saw a pegasus in common Raider attire. It surprised him to see a pegasus among the likes of raiders. The pegasus was a dull cream colour, and from the voice sounded female. He was unable to see the pegasus’ face since the raider wore a sack mask that encapsulated her head. The body of the raider also suggested female as it wasn’t as large or as bulky as most stallions either.

“Fuck my life,” Fruity groaned. “Piss off, nutcase.”

“Aww, that’s not very nice. I gotta punish you now.” The raider mare giggled in glee as she reached to her belt with her forehooves and pulled off a pair of daggers.

“You can get those away from me,” Fruity warned.

Fruity grit his teeth and growled. He was at his limit and couldn’t push himself any harder. Therefore, he was getting more tired, which meant he would be getting gradually slower, and the raider would easily be able to reach him. He didn’t have any weapons since he had to leave his waterlogged battlesaddle behind at the resort, which wouldn’t be operational until it dried out. 

“C’mon, come here! I don’t want to have to clip your wings,” The raider taunted.

Fruity’s eyes widened when he felt his rapidly beating wings brush against something on the waist band of his worn out duster. He looked under his wing and found the Pulse Wave Emitter bouncing about on his belt. Despite his own hooves, the Emitter was his only weapon, but as far as he knew it was designed to be an anti-robot/power armour weapon, not meant to be effective against a pony; so he had no idea if it would be of use at all. If anything it could give him some breathing room. Fruity quickly snatched the weapon from his belt and flipped over, and began to awkwardly fly backwards while pointing the weapon at the raider.

“Ohhh, look at you flying all fancy-like.” The raider mare giggled.

“Oh, will you shut up,” Fruity groaned as he brought the weapon to his mouth and took hold of its mouth grip with his maw.

“Hehe, you even have a foal’s Captain Stardust toy gun. How cute.” She laughed, and then raised her legs in preparation to stab.

Fruity mumbled incoherently around the mouth grip before he used his tongue to pull on the trigger. The dish-like muzzle of the weapon began to glow an electric blue before it discharged a donut of electrical energy toward the pegasus mare. The electrical discharge was slightly off target, but being at such close proximity it washed over the mare anyway. She screamed in agony as she was given an electric shock and her muscles were given a strong stimulating pulse that made them seize up. The mare’s wings immediately froze as she was given the equivalent of a taser shock and began to fall out of the sky. Fruity watched as the mare under the influence of the shock was unable to regain the use of her wings in time, and slammed into the remnants of a desert road.

“Well, at least some desert critters will get to enjoy a nice road pizza,” Fruity solemnly commented before he flipped back over and continued his flight.

XXXX

The rocky base of Meadowlark Hill was quiet save for a soft wind blowing across the sandy terrain. The quiet was soon ruined as the wind suddenly picked up and begun to swirl around, as if something was drawing the air in just above the ground. As the soft winds blew, there came a flash and a crackle from the centre, releasing arks of energy, before another blinding flash of light appeared, followed by one last crackling pop; the strong winds dispersed, leaving the area quiet once again.

“Well, that was an experience,” Nexus said as he readjusted himself to his new surroundings, not to mention being overwhelmed by multiple onboard alerts from the sudden magical displacement.

“We have arrived, Nexus,” Oxanna announced.

Nexus shook his head as his fuzzy vision cleared, the magical surge from the teleport having caused interference with some of his systems. “Yes, we have indeed. Thank you, Miss Oxanna.” He then focused on the hill before him. “Ok, Miss Éclair will be here shortly. Can you please fall back to the MASA HQ and be ready to open a Phase Gate for us once this is all over?”

“Of course. Good luck out here, Nexus. I hope things will go smoothly.” The alicorn then disappeared in another flash of light.

Nexus didn’t look back to watch the alicorn teleport out. Instead, he stayed focused on the hill as the emotion of dread began to fill him. “Yes. So do I,” He muttered to himself.

Despite his memory of the facility having been erased, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of foreboding since he knew what awaited them inside, namely Unit-1000 and Colonel Ironside. He was pulled out of his frozen state when an alert flashed into his HUD that told him that Crystal would arrive very soon.

“I must prevent Ma’am from sealing her fate.” He began to walk around the hill at a brisk pace to find the trail he used when he first left the Facility. He trotted quickly until he found the road sign for a campsite and followed the dirt road up the hill. About half-way up the trail, he came to a fork in the road. Going left would have him continue onward toward the campsite at the summit of the hill, but going right would lead him to the entrance to the Facility. The signs at the fork labelled the right path as dangerous and that there was a closed mine up ahead.

Nexus froze as he followed the right path about half-way toward the entrance, inside the small valley cut into the hill. On the ground were small rails, partially hidden to give the illusion of a mine rail system for those that walked by, but hidden behind the large rocks was a huge concrete slab built into the hill, with a large heavy steel door in it. That door was wide open as if it was an invitation; they were clearly expected. However, none of this was why Nexus stopped. His pause derived from sensing the powerful energy signatures of the active robots inside: Unit-3 and Unit-1000.

“This could be more difficult than originally anticipated,” he muttered. The robot turned around as another alert flashed in his HUD, but as he put his back to the open door, he felt the mechanical equivalent of something making his skin crawl. He quickly looked back to the dark open doorway, and he swore for a brief moment he saw two glowing red lights in the darkness. “I’m sure I saw something, but now isn’t the time to lose my cool,” he said in a slightly quivering voice.

Nexus faced forward again just in time to see the rapidly approaching teal and golden yellow comet that was Crystal under the speed boost of her Lightboom. The sparkling comet arched down as it came in for its approach, until the blazing aura suddenly dissipated as it got close. The zebra pegasus reared back and began flapping her wings hard to bring herself to a complete stop. Once her forward momentum had ceased, she landed on the gravelly ground of the dugout valley in front of Nexus. She wore a perplexed expression as she saw her robotic friend already there before her. She opened her mouth to say something, but winced when her eyes and hair flashed from their orange and yellow colours, and then faded back to their original blue eyes and white and grey stripes. Once her colouration had reverted, she fell to one knee, panting heavily.

“Ma’am, are you ok?” Nexus asked in concern as he rushed over to her.

The cybernetic pegasus mare grunted with effort as she rose back up while still panting tiredly. “I… drained all of my… secondary power core’s… energy doing that and… my main is down to… forty percent,” She gasped out.

Nexus turned around and put himself beside her so she could lean on him for support. 

“But… a better question is… how are you… here before me?” Crystal asked with some irritation in her voice while she leaned on the robot pony.

“Tratos and Oxanna’s Phase Gate. The same method we used to go to Rust-Bucket City,” Nexus clarified. “But I’m here to stop you going in there alone and without Mr Fruity.”

Crystal nearly threw herself off him but was too tired to put the effort in, but she did whip her head around to face him, a furious glare being levelled at him. “Why in Celestia’s name would you stop me from trying to save my daughter?”

“Because if you go in there alone, you and her will both die.”

“What?!”

“She is bait for you. You go in there, he will have what he wants, and he won’t need her anymore. He will kill her once he has you,” Nexus explained, hoping it would get through to the angry mare.

Crystal looked conflicted. Her maternal instincts were telling her to rescue her foal at all costs, but the rational part of her brain had heard what was said and was beating down that instinct with the cold, hard stick of logic that charging in there alone and without a plan would kill her foal and herself. 

“What do we do then?” Crystal asked him anxiously.

“We wait for Mr Fruity who had took off after you. He has the Pulse Wave Emitter. If we are to have a chance to even the odds, it is with the Emitter in our hooves.” 

“B-but Xian?” Crystal cried.

“He won’t risk harming her until he has you where he wants you, otherwise there would be no reason for you to be here.” 

Crystal, with tears of worry for her daughter in her eyes, looked up to the sky where a bright contrail of teal and golden orange was still hanging in the air, and whimpered. “Please hurry, Fruity.”

XXXXX

“This was not expected. I-02 IS was teleported in by an alicorn before the arrival of I-01.” Colonel Ironside observed from the scan data from local scanners. “Unit-1000, can you interact with the rogue unit?”

“Negative, sir. Unit-1002’s remote signal transmitter is non-functional,” The machine replied via its comlink as it had moved out of the control room to be in position.

“Hmm. What is it doing?” Ironside asked as he monitored the scanner’s data stream.

Soon the scanner began to display data that the energy signature of I-02 IS was moving, and after several minutes, the machine came into view of an external security camera.

“It has changed since I last saw it. Looks weathered and beaten,” Ironside commented.

The grainy security footage showed the machine turn around and put his back to the door just as a blur of movement came down and impacted the ground in front of him. When the light and the dust faded, his quarry came into view. 

“I-01 is here. The appearance of the rogue unit cannot change our plans now. Stick to the plan.” 

XXXXX

I stared up into the sky, feeling scared and frustrated. Scared for my adopted daughter that was most likely scared out of her mind right now in the bowels of the Facility, and frustrated at myself for my stupidity in giving into the voice in my head. I shouldn’t have let the voice get to me, riling me up and getting me so angry that I couldn’t see reason after the abduction of Xian. I was also frustrated that when I took off, flying at full speed, I let the influence of the pony who’s magic I now carry take full effect and push me to pulling off something that only a hoofful of pegasi have ever been able to do. In doing that, I’d shot myself to the Facility way ahead of Fruity who had tried to talk me down mid-flight. I’m so stupid; not only did he try to talk me down, he also had the very weapon we had spent the day trudging around Rust-Bucket City for, and without it we didn’t have our advantage. To top things off, Nexus saw the sense to get the help of the same alicorns that got us to the ship to teleport himself here, just to stop me from doing something stupid, and if he wasn’t here to stop me, I would have gotten myself killed along with Xian. I owed him dearly.

“H-how long do you think it will take him to get here?” I tentatively asked my robotic friend.

“If we calculate how fast he flies in general, he’ll be flying at average pegasi top speeds the whole way. I estimate he would arrive in an hour, two at the most,” Nexus replied after a brief pause.

“AN HOUR!” I cried, not at all happy to wait that long.

“You did get here over the speed of sound. You covered the distance in minutes,” Nexus said flatly.

I opened my mouth to retort, but then closed it and looked down in shame. Not only that, I was still feeling tired since my energy levels were low after that intense flight. I whimpered pitifully and lay down. At that moment, I took notice of my HUD, especially my power readings. My Secondary Mana-Core was depleted, and my Primary Mana-Core was now down to thirty-eight percent and slowly dropping. 

“I-um, I’m losing power,” I muttered. “Do you um, perhaps have anything that could help recharge me?”

“Sure, here.” Nexus used his nano-fibre tail to reach into his armour and pull out a small pouch to which he then placed on the floor before me.

I gently prodded the small fabric bag with my hoof and felt multiple small hard objects inside. When I opened the pouch, I was surprised to see at least ten gemstones sitting inside it.

“Where did you get these?” I asked in surprise.

“In an abandoned house somewhere during the time I was tracking you. After what happened to me outside of Stable 16, I wanted to be sure I had adequate materials to restore my power as soon as possible,” Nexus explained. “But nothing like that occurred again, thankfully, and I have found some more along the way so I can spare those for you.”

“Thank you,” I smiled weakly.

“You are welcome. You’ll need to be as recharged as possible for when we go in there.”

I nodded and began to pop gem after gem into my mouth like they were small sweets. Each one was like a fruit-flavoured sugary gummie, almost like I was eating a packet of Fruit Pastels, all lovely and juicy and such. After that satisfying snack, I was surprised and pleased to see that the energy reserve for my Primary Mana-Core had risen to eighty-eight percent and I felt so much more energised.

“Can you spare a couple more? I’m almost fully charged,” I asked sheepishly.

He nodded and fished out another pouch to which I only ate five gems that restored me to full power. Once I was recharged, we spent the next hour pacing. Well, I paced; he just stood there to keep me from trying to make a break for the door, and tried to come up with a plan of action. Any plans we came up with, however, wouldn’t work all that well since Nexus’s memory of the facility had been erased, so he didn’t remember what was inside.

“Ma’am, I see him,” Nexus announced as he pointed an armoured hoof to the sky almost an hour and a half after I arrived.

I whirled around and looked up. My enhanced pegasus eyes were clearly able to see Fruity gliding down towards us, but he was wobbling in the air and his head was drooped like he exhausted.

“Oh no!” I gasped when I realised my coltfriend was going to smack right into the ground in his exhausted stated. I rushed forward to where he was going to land and stood on my hind legs, my wings extending out behind me as counterbalance for my upright posture. I braced my hind legs and opened my forelegs, ready to catch him. I raised an eyebrow when I realised that there was a black stetson in his mouth as he shifted his head to tuck it under his duster, and prepared his legs for his landing. He flared his wings to create drag to slow himself down, but he struggled to keep them locked with how weak they were. Finally we met, and despite how much he slowed himself down, he still came in too hot and crashed into my outstretched legs. I grunted as I toppled over onto my back while I wrapped my hooves around him to hold him steady while we slid across the dirt. With my heavy cybernetic weight, we stopped very quickly and I hugged him tightly.

“I’m so, so sorry Fruity,” I cried into his sweaty chest.

The tired pegasus took in deep breaths of air to refill his lungs with oxygen. “S-so you s-should, do you… have any idea, the shit I had to… deal with while chasing your… arse?”

“I’m sorry. I let my emotions get the better of me.” I helped him back to his hooves. The poor stallion was so exhausted that he was trembling just standing.

“Yeah well, first I nearly crash into the ground from your crazy Lightboom, then I get chased by a crackhead pegasus raider, and to top it off, your bloody hat smacks me in the face where I nearly fell into another death dive,” He grumbled before he began to cough. “Ugh, hey Bucket Head, don’t suppose you got any water on you?” 

“Certainly, sir.” Nexus used his tail again to reach into his armour to pull out a cylindrical can and hoofed it over to Fruity, who weakly took it with his wing.

“The fuck is this?” Fruity asked as he eyed the can. “I asked for water, not a can of pop.”

“Oddly enough, sir, that is purified water,” Nexus revealed.

“You gotta be yanking ma chain here.” Fruity took a closer look at the can to which he could just about see the markings for Purified Water. “Since when did they put water in a can?”

“Canned water?” I asked just as surprised.

“The oddity of the water being in a tin can is why I picked it up. I thought it was interesting.” 

“Yeah, very odd,” I agreed as Fruity bit the cap and pulled it off before he greedily chugged down the water. 

“Damn, I needed that.” He sighed with satisfaction and then held the empty water can to Nexus. “Still want the can or should I chuck it?”

“Might as well dispose of it, sir. It no longer has any value to it now,” Nexus said with a hint of sadness.

“Fair enough.” The pegasus lobbed the water can behind him without a care.

“That’s littering. Couldn’t you have waited till we found a bin?” I groaned.

Fruity looked at me like I said something stupid. “Seriously, the world has been blown to shit and you are mithered about one little can?” 

I blushed in embarrassment upon hearing that. I suppose he had a point there. My pre-war mindset on the way things are post-war might clash like they just did here on occasion.

“Anyway, now that we are all here, I think now is a good time to proceed to the Facility and rescue young Xian,” Our robot companion suggested.

My expression became serious and I nodded. “Yes. Fruity, are you up to this?” 

The pegasus nodded. “Yeah, that water did the trick. My heart’s still hammering like a jackhammer but I’m ready to put an end to this.”

I nodded, and after meeting the gaze of all of my friends, we turned for the door and began to approach.

“Ma’am, Sir, I will focus on finding and rescuing Xian, I can feel the power signature of Unit-3 below. She will most likely be guarded by that machine. You two can visit the Colonel. Keep him talking or distract him in some manner long enough for me to get her out,” Nexus said as he detailed his plan.

Now that Fruity was with us, such a plan could work as I wouldn’t be alone and Fruity had possession of the Pulse Wave Emitter.

“Sir, be prepared to use the Pulse Wave Emitter,” Nexus added after a moment’s pause.

The pegasus nodded as he lifted his right wing to reveal the weapon holstered on his belt. “Fun fact: this weapon works well on normal ponies like a taser.”

The doorway to the facility in the hill was fairly large, and the metal door itself was quite big itself in both size and thickness. I suppose it had to be if it was supposed to withstand a mega-spell detonation.

As we passed the threshold, we noticed a security camera by the doorframe and Fruity gave it a rude wing gesture, which was the back of the wing facing the camera and most of the primary feathers on the leading edge curled down apart from one. I’ve seen pegasi youths use this gesture to say like “Fuck you” or “Up yours”. 

“Rude,” I chastise.

“What, the twat deserves it.”

“Please don’t use such language around Xian when we get her out of here.”

“I agree with Ma’am. It would not be healthy for her development,” Nexus added.

Fruity groaned as he slapped his wing against his forehead.

The corridor beyond the door was shrouded in shadow as the lights were out, which made it hard to see what lay ahead. As we pushed deeper into the corridor, we were jolted by a sudden one-tone alarm before we were alerted to movement behind us. The huge steel door began to close with creaks and groans. 

“Wait, wait no!” I cried, but regardless, the large door closed and cast us all into pitch black darkness, and the only sound we could here then was the numerous thuds as its locking rams sealed the door.

“This has to be all part of his plan,” I whined.

Suddenly, a series of lights above us turned on that lit up the corridor up to a corner that branched off to the right as if on cue. 

“I guess we go that way,” Fruity said with a defensive growl.

I nodded as we began to slowly and cautiously make our way up the lit corridor. The walls were bare, and every so often there would be columns or pipes that went from the floor to the ceiling that were also littered with ducts and cables. We would notice that one or two of these columns would be broken with cut wires stuck out of them. This must be the sabotage caused by Dr Pear.

“Multiple electrical cables and system links have been cut. Eighty percent of the facility’s remote functionality has been severed,” Nexus revealed.

“So the crazy git doesn’t have control of most of this place?” Fruity asked.

“So it would seem, but he has control of what is important.” 

We turned the corner and more lights flickered on, while the lights from behind us went out. It was clear we were being led somewhere that he wanted us to go to. The lights quickly turned left to go back up again, but there was a corridor beyond the lit path.

“Utility Access,” Nexus said as he looked into the darkness.

“Excuse me?” I asked and turned back to him.

“I can see a sign above a door in the darkness there that reads “Utility Access”. I can use that to make my way down through the maintenance access routes to where Xian is being held.” He began to approach the shadowed area.

“Are you going to be ok by yourself?” I asked in concern for my robotic friend.

“Yeah, there will be no back up in there, mate,” Fruity added, showing concern for the Infiltrator.

Nexus gave us a nod before he disappeared into the shadows, and the sound of a door being opened and closed was the last sound we heard of our friend before we were left alone together.

“Well, let’s get a move on. I think you’re late for your appointment with the colonel,” Fruity joked.

I nodded. “Let’s.”

We continued to follow the concrete corridor in the direction the lights were directing us. Mostly it was a single route, but there were a couple of junctions along the way. The last straight stretch of the corridor had the most vandalism as nearly all of the cable ducts were broken and slashed on the walls. There were even a few doors along the corridor that led us to the control room, but they were all closed or locked so we were left with no other option but to go for the door at the very end that the lights indicated. As we approached, the steel door to the control room it slid up by itself into the frame to reveal a dark and ominous room.

“I guess we’re expected. Um, ladies first,” Fruity gestured with his hoof.

The room beyond the door was pitch black.

“If someone comes out and jumps me, I’m gonna smack you so hard,” I whined.

“Don’t worry, I’m right behind you.” 

“My saviour,” I said sarcastically with a roll of my eyes as I slowly inched into the dark room. I would have had my shotgun or revolver out, but considering we would likely be fighting machines like Nexus they wouldn’t be very effective, so I didn’t draw my weapons. My enhanced vision was able to pick out a large computer bank against the back wall of the room with an enormous monitor that practically covered the wall above it, but before I could take in anymore details, I was blinded when the lights in the room came on.

“Gah!” I cried as the sudden flash of light took me by surprise.

“I’m blind, I can’t see!” Fruity whined before he walked into my plot. “Oof!”

“Welcome I-01. I am Colonel Ironside and we’ve been expecting you,” A deep male voice greeted us. 

Once my eyes adjusted to the light, I looked up to see that the huge monitor was now active, and on the screen was a large wireframe pony face. The screen was black, but the wireframe model of the face was red with glowing yellow pupils in the eyes. The shape of the face was clearly that of an earth pony stallion.

“Wait ,we?!” I asked in alarm. At that moment, there were two loud clangs from behind us. Fruity and I whirled around to the door we came in by and gasped as an Infiltrator far larger than the ones we’ve faced in the past stood in the doorway, completely blocking it with its large but slender frame and outstretched bony-like wings. We had to crane our necks back to see its head as at our eye level we could only see its reinforced chest plate. The machine had long, slender legs and neck, and its skeletal-like head was topped off with a long slim antenna-like horn with a rainbow-hued jewel of some sort. The large machine tilted its head down so it could look directly at us, then suddenly, lights flared to life on its forehead and on the top of its head before a cascade of energy flowed down from its head and around its neck. The energy formed a flowing, if glitchy, mane that resembled something akin to what Princess Celestia once had but entirely in red. As we stared up at it fearfully, I noticed on its left eyebrow plate the etching: “U-1000”. 

“Dear sweet Luna!” Fruity gasped as he took a couple steps back, clearly intimidated by the large robot. “It’s fucking huge!”

I gulped in fear now that the machine had us trapped. While I stared up at the large alicorn-like robot, the voice of the pony I possess the magic of spoke up.

“Don’t you have something important to do other than stare at something superior to you?”

“Xian!”

I turned back to face the monitor and gulped down my anxiety of the machine behind me, I then stepped forward and flared out my wings to look as intimidating as possible.

“Where is my daughter?” I demanded.

Fruity turned to face the monitor as my demand got his attention.

“Daughter? That little zebra foal? You consider that thing to be your daughter?” The face shifted to look right at me on the screen while it spoke in a disgusted tone.

“Of course I do. She’s just a sweet innocent little filly, she doesn’t deserve to be a part of this mess,” I growled.

“Yeah, what sort of a monster uses kids like this?” Fruity asked.

“You deluded fools. That foal doesn’t deserve your kindness nor your love. She is part of the race that caused Equestria to burn and thus must be eradicated.”

I flapped my wings in aggravation. “Don’t you dare lay a hoof on her.” 

The wireframe face twisted in a sickening smirk. “As we speak, Unit-03 should be crushing her little skull.”

“Everything has gone according to plan.” Unit-1000 spoke in a hauntingly soft and motherly tone that was reminiscent to Princess Celestia.

“We’ve been had hook, line, and sinker,” Fruity groaned.

“W-we can’t give up yet. Nexus might have gotten to her first,” I said with hope.

“Ah yes, the rogue element,” Ironside said with a smug tone of voice. “Even if it did intervene and stop Unit-03, the primary purpose of the foal being here has accomplished its goal.” The Colonel’s wireframe face grinned triumphantly. “You are right where I want you.”

Well two could play at this game.

“Yeah, well we knew you planned for this so we prepared a countermeasure.” I turned to Fruity and nodded. The pegasus put on a cocky smile and lifted his wing to reveal the Pulse Wave Emitter. The wireframe pony’s eyes widened considerably as he took notice of the sci-fi looking weapon.

“The Pulse Wave Emitter. Where did you get that?” He asked with a hint of worry in his voice.

“Never mind that, you fuck face,” Fruity said as he reached under his wing to grab the weapon with his mouth.

“Kill him,” The Colonel ordered.

My eyes widened in alarm as the huge machine lurched forward to attack.

“Fruity, watch out!”

The pegasus dove forward toward the computer system to avoid a hoof swipe from the robot’s long slender leg. He righted himself and spun around to face the massive machine as it approached. Fruity lifted his head and loosely aimed the weapon for the machine and fired. I cringed and moved back as I could feel the electro-magnetic wave as the weapon discarded its donut of energy. It was odd that Unit-1000 didn’t make an attempt to dodge it nor for Ironside to show any concern for his machine, so I began to suspect something was up. The donut of energy hit the alicorn robot and the whole machine was then enveloped in an electro-magnetic pulse for a second or two before it faded, and when it did all of the robots lights flickered on and off before they faded off and its holographic mane and tail fizzled out.

“Hah, eat that bitch!” Fruity cheered. 

As I stared at the seemingly deactivated robot, I couldn’t help but get the sense that something was wrong. When I looked at the large monitor and saw the bemused expression, I instantly knew it wasn’t over.

“Alright, that’s enough playing around,” Ironside sighed.

And just like that, the machine sprung back to life and it looked at the completely gobsmacked pegasus. If the machine had flesh, it would likely have given him a cheeky smile as it spoke in a playful tone. “Gotcha.”

I noticed Ironside raise an eyebrow at the robot’s behaviour but he didn’t say anything more.

I shot across the room with a burst of speed from my wings when I saw the robot raise a foreleg again to strike at my coltfriend, who was frozen in shock. I shoulder-barged him out of the way, which made him yelp in surprise and drop the Pulse Wave Emitter. I then cried out in agony when the machine’s hoof swung down and connected solidly with my armour-padded shoulder. It felt like somepony had smacked me as hard as they could with a hoofball bat.

“Shit, are you alright?” Fruity asked in concern as he rushed over to me while I picked myself back up. “Dude, it totally bent your shoulder guard in.”

“Argh! Yeah, I can feel it,” I groaned as I stood up. The bent metal rubbed against my shoulder as I moved. I looked at the dented armour and cringed. If Unit-1000 was able to do that to a piece of military-grade combat armour, I dreaded to think of what it could have done to Fruity and his entirely organic and unarmoured body if it hit him instead. I realised then and there that this was way too dangerous for my coltfriend. His body was way too fragile and he could easily be severely injured or worse from just a single blow from this robot.

“We need to come up with a plan and fast,” Fruity whispered.

I nodded and turned to him before giving him a loving nuzzle to the cheek. “Please go. Go help Nexus.”

“Wait, what?!” Fruit gaped at me. “That’s not a plan!”

“Please, Fruity, just go!” I pleaded, my eyes wide with worry.

He stared back and his expression saddened in realisation. “Alright, w-we’ll come back for you as soon as we can.” He kissed me on the cheek before he flapped his wings hard to propel himself towards the open door. Unit-1000 didn’t make a move to stop him, despite being ordered to kill him. Both it and Ironside knew who the real target was and I was now alone.

“You have only bought him a few more minutes, I-01. His time will come,” Ironside said with a cruel smile.

I noticed the Emitter was within reach of my tail and got an idea to quickly end him. I just needed to keep him distracted. “Why are you doing this?” I demanded.

“Why? Originally it was to stop the war from ending the way it did, to keep the country from making things worse; while also stopping the enemy from gaining strength through internal collapse of their infrastructure, and to prevent further wars from ever occurring.” Colonel Ironside explained firmly. His gaze shifted to Unit-1000 for a moment before settling back on me. “However, after the bombs fell and the world fell apart, and after I was awoken when I was alerted to your presence, I’ve learned that the world has fallen into complete disarray without a Princess to rule or to bring order back to the nation. I now plan to bring back the world of old, establish a monarchy with a princess, and use my Infiltrators to ensure order is maintained so Equestria will know a peace that hasn’t been seen for nearly two centuries.”

I could tell he had good intentions, but the way he was going about things was not ethical and against equine rights. I twitched as I felt my nano-fibre tail wrap around the mouth grip of the Emitter. I had to keep my face straight so I didn’t give them any indication I was doing something. “W-why are you after me?”

Unit-1000 loomed over me; its slightly larger head came down to be at eye level with me. “You possess something that is required for our completion so we can fulfil our destinies.” It spoke in that same unnervingly sweet voice.

“The binding spell?” I asked, although I already knew this from what Dr Pear had told us.

“Correct… How did you know about that?” The Colonel asked.

Crap, busted. I quickly pulled up the Emitter wrapped in my tail and aimed it at the large computer system that held the Colonel. His eyes widened in alarm and anger.

“Kill her!”

I fired a blast right into the computer terminal, and in the process, dropped the weapon from the EM feedback I felt. I watched as the computer sparked and crackled and the face on the monitor shook violently like he was in great pain, before disappearing from the screen as the computer went dark with a final scream.

“Haha! Eat dirt, asshole!” I yelled in triumph. However, I had completely forgot about the large robot next to me at that moment, and instantly regretted it as it smacked me again with its foreleg in the chest. The hit was so hard and strong it was enough to lift me off my hooves, and throw me across the room and into a large doorway. I landed with a heavy thud and scraped across the metal floor until I crashed into a large red blast door.

“Argh!!!” I cried in agony. My chest armour was also now dented in, and I could feel a slight dampness in my coat under my armour. I groaned as I struggled to my hooves and wasted no time in pulling off the damaged armour sections. I sighed in relief when the damaged sections no longer pressed down against my hurt limb and chest, but I cringed as I looked down at my now armourless chest to see a red splotch on my Noir Coat. The hit against my armour piece dented it enough that it broke the skin below it.

“Y-you can’t k-kill me. You n-need me,” I grunted out in pain.

“We can kill you, for you are within the Facility where we do not need you to be alive. All we need is a sample of your flesh to analyse.” Colonel Ironside’s voice reverberated around the room from a speaker in the corner. Of course he wouldn’t be dead. Like a computer, he could have easily have copied himself to somewhere else.

The large robot began to advance, its bony wings extending out to make itself look even bigger as it approached the blast door. I felt what little bravado I had left drain away after I heard what Ironside said. As I stared up at the huge machine, I then realised it wasn’t going to hold back enough so that I’d live through this. It was going to kill me. I began to panic as it approached the blast door’s archway. I had to escape somehow, so I began to frantically look around and quickly stumbled onto the door’s control panel. Without thinking, I pressed the door release button, and with a loud chime, the huge red door began to open.

The machine stood before me as the door slowly opened. I shivered in fear and began to dodge hoof punches as she threw them at me, dodging left, dodging right, and ducking to avoid her hooves. She was lightning fast, and if it wasn’t for my threat indicator, she would be all over me and I’d be a pile of mush on the floor. I grunted when the sharp edge of her forehoof grazed my cheek and left a cut along it, before I was startled by a loud thud and clang as the blast door settled into the ground and ceiling. That momentary lapse in concentration cost me as I suddenly felt excruciating pain in my chest like I had been shot. When I looked down, I could see that Unit-1000 had hit me with a precision strike with the tip of her hoof to my regeneration talisman, if the “Catastrophic System Failure” and “Regen-System Offline” warnings I was now receiving were any indication. I gasped in agony and staggered back through the open door, and into a cavernous chamber shrouded in a red-hued light. I brought a hoof up to my now bleeding chest. When I pulled my hoof away, it was coated in the blood that coursed through my flesh, and there were tiny specs of a pink gem as well.

“Oh I’m sorry. Did I break something important?” The machine taunted in Celestia’s voice.

I staggered backwards until my rump pressed against the guard rail of the catwalk I stood on. Despite my pain, I found myself gaping at what I saw that surrounded me. In every direction I looked, I saw catwalks and storage pods that all had glowing red lights on them. In the pods that were closest to me, I was able to see that the red light was an indicator to show that the robots within were on standby, which meant they could be activated at any moment. It was a horrifying sight to behold and it drove home just how real the possibility of Colonel Ironside’s plan was. Beside the entryway on the right, I could see four pods that were open. 

“Four!” I gasped. I knew Dr Pear and Nexus didn’t have pods as Dr Pear built herself and him. We got chased across Equestria by Units 1 and 2, and the third pod was for the other one that was sent to hunt us down but ended up foalnapping Xian to lure us here instead, so where is Unit-4?

I felt searing pain along the side of my head as Unit-1000 hit me again. I was too fixated on the fourth pod to notice her approach or the flashing exclamation mark to realise there was a threat. I threw my hoof up to my right cheek and cried out in alarm when I felt a huge chunk of my flesh had been ripped away by the hit, and that I could feel that there was a hole into my mouth through my cheek again. I needed to get away, but with how close she was I wouldn’t be able to get far. Unfortunately, my only option was to attempt to fight back. I knew I was outclassed in every way, but I had to try.

Unit-1000 swung a hoof down hard to try and pierce my skull. I reacted to my threat warning as soon as it appeared on my HUD, and I side-stepped to avoid the impact. The sharp metal hoof pierced the metal catwalk like it was paper. This was my chance. I reared up onto my hind legs to give me some height and put all my strength into a punch of my own aimed for her face. However, the large machine simply moved its long slender neck back to avoid my punch, and since I was balanced on two legs, I lost my balance when my hoof hit nothing but air. I squeaked as I felt my centre of gravity shift, but just when I was about to fall, I stopped. I felt pressure on my other foreleg, and when I looked, Unit-1000 held it with her free foreleg as she sat on her haunches. I looked up into those glowing red robot eyes in fear as she held me up. I flapped my wings and pulled to try and free myself, but she just tightened her vice-like grip, making me cringe in pain from the pressure. 

“Time to end this,” It said with an almost sad tone as it yanked her other leg free from the floor and raised it.

“No, no!” I cried as I thrashed about. 

It threw its hoof forward, aimed for my chest again, likely to stop my heart. I screamed and pulled as hard as I could backwards. I felt a slight shift, but my senses were once again abused with a sharp pain as her hoof dug into my abdomen and deep into my stomach and continued down until it ripped out through the bottom of my crotch between my legs. The pain was unimaginable. Tears streaked down my cheeks as my nerves screamed for the abuse to stop.

“Oh dear, now look at what you made me do,” Unit-1000 sighed as it let go of me. “You made me make a mess.”

When the machine let go of me, I was too distracted by my pain to pay attention to what I was doing as my immediate thought was to get away, and that involved taking a step back. My hind legs and my rump hit the guard rail, and since I was still on my hind legs, I quickly lost my balance and toppled backwards over the railing, falling down into the cavernous chamber.

XXXXX

Unit-1000 stood up slowly after it watched the injured cyber-mare fall over the guard rail and plummet. It felt a little bad for the damage it caused the mare, but it was under orders after all and they had to be followed. It approached the railing just in time to see the mare open her wings and glide across to the opposite side, while avoiding the central column of the Vault and in between a row of containment capsules about a third of the way down.

“So she wants to prolong her suffering. Such a shame.”

“Having problems, Unit-1000?” Colonel Ironside asked as his voice was projected from the body of Unit-4, the machine walking in through the open door behind the alicorn robot shortly after I-01 fell.

“Negative, sir,” Unit-1000 said as it turned to face the smaller machine. “Just giving her a sporting chance. I have acquired a sizable sample for you. ” The large machine gestured to the mound of bloody meat beside her before it turned and headed for a narrow staircase to the lower levels of the Mark 2 Vault. 

The smaller machine turned its gaze away from Unit-1000, and instead looked down at a large pile of gore on the catwalk floor. 

“Excellent. Retrieve it at once, we only have a few minutes before the flesh dies and the spell inside it becomes useless,” Colonel Ironside ordered.

“Acknowledged,” The robot said in an emotionless monotone before it approached the slab of meat that had once been I-01’s underbelly and crotch. Once the dripping piece of flesh had been acquired, the robot turned around and began to rush back towards the control room and the elevator beside the entrance, so it could go down to the labs.

XXXXX

Fruity retraced his steps back down the main corridor until he came to the junction where Nexus had left the group to begin his search for Xian by entering the Utility Section. Upon entering, he found that it led to a stairway that took him down deeper into the Facility, with several tunnels that branched out to several different departments. However, recently disturbed dust on the floor revealed to him the direction that the robot had taken, so the pegasus followed it until he came to the Residential Quarters. He finally found Nexus inside one of the old living quarters deep inside the residential area. He was lured by the sounds of an argument, and was stunned to find Nexus standing protectively in front of Xian on a couch across from a pink unicorn mare who sat on her haunches, looking like she was having a severe migraine. She shook her head and cried, not with pain but with fear and effort; when she opened her eyes, her blue irises flashed red while she held her head with her forehooves.

“You can fight this Pixie. You do not have to do what they tell you,” Nexus told her. “Do you really want to harm a foal?”

“Argh, n-no, I-I don’t, ughh.” She growled and closed her eyes. When she opened them, her eyes were red again. “Neural interference intensifying. Remote body control not responding,” Unit-3’s emotionless voice said as it stated its situation.

“What the hell is going on here?” Fruity asked as he flew across the room to stand beside Nexus and put himself between the enemy machine and his adoptive daughter. 

“Pixie Lulamoon here has evolved enough that she has acquired a sense of self, able to think and act on her own. However, the internal programming that forces us-well the baseline Mark 2 units, to obey any order is trying to get her to act against her will,” Nexus explained quickly.

“Well don’t just stand there, do something!” Fruity urged as he draped a wing over the shivering and whimpering little filly.

“I-I know I took, uhhh, the original Pixie’s memories, hmmm, but I feel like I am her now, argh, her wants, her desires.” The machine looked up, her gaze settled on Xian. “I want to entertain ponies, foals especially, ARGH! Hmmm, make them laugh, make them happy, I-I can’t hurt, I WON’T hurt a foal!” She declared while she fought to keep her self-control.

“I believe you,” Nexus said as he approached. “I can help, but you will have to keep still.”

“Are you bonkers lad? This could be a ploy to get us to let our guard down!” Fruity shouted.

Suddenly, Pixie gasped and looked at Nexus with clear eyes. “I-I don’t feel it trying to take control. Wait…” She closed her eyes in concentration. “I don’t sense Colonel Ironside in the System anymore. Am I free?”

“Crystal!” Fruity said in realisation.

“For the moment. The main computer may have been disabled, but I fear he would have a backup and it will only be a matter of time before he re-establishes himself. We don’t have long so please, hold still while I prevent you from being able to taken by them again.” 

“O-ok. T-thank you so much.” Pixie sat and locked her limbs to keep herself stock still.

“I hope you know what you are doing, Tin Can.” 

“Don’t worry, sir. I’ve disabled mine, and I know where it is, so it’ll be an easy fix,” Nexus replied as he turned around so he could extend his nano-fibre tail out. He stared at Pixie’s head as his nano-fibres began to snake around her head, phasing through her illusion spell and finding their way through any gap or space in the metal skull. The fibres dug their way deeper and deeper into her head. The robot mare, who was able to feel them, fought hard to keep still as they pushed into the core of her head.

“What are you searching for?” Fruity asked as he shielded Xian’s eyes from what would have been a horrific execution of a living thing if Pixie was a live pony.

“Her signal transmitter, sir.” Just as Nexus said that, he raised his head as his nano-fibres found their target. “I have it.” And with that, he made his nano-fibres encapsulate the transmitter, and with the right application of force, tore it from the circuit.

Pixie gasped. “Ah! M-my Signal Transmitter just went offline.”

Nexus then began to withdraw his tail, the tiny device having been ripped apart further by the fibres that held it. This was done so it could be extracted from her body but it wouldn’t just be left in there to eventually be repaired.

“You are free now. No longer under anypony’s control,” Nexus told her as he threw the remains of her signal transmitter away.

The robotic mare stood up and tackle-hugged Nexus, the illusion shedding tears of joy. “Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! I would have hated myself for the rest of my life if I was made to hurt a foal.” 

After the release of Unit-3, Pixie Lulamoon, Fruity and Nexus took several minutes to debate on what to do next, before the intercom speaker in the corner of the room suddenly crackled to life and the voice of Colonel Ironside filled the room. 

“Unit-3, for whatever reason I cannot detect you, but that is not important. Report to the Research Lab immediately. I’m sure you have taken care of our little unwanted guest. It is time to complete Project Infiltrator.”

Fruity looked to the speaker wide-eyed. “Wait, complete? Does that mean…”

“He has acquired a sample of Crystal’s flesh,” Nexus said grimly.

“Oh, fuck no.”

“Ok, Fruity, Pixie, take Xian to the MASA HQ. Oxanna will be waiting for us there. You’ll be safe there until I can get Ma’am out.”

“Oh no you don’t, you Smart-Alec metal git! Crystal is mine, and I don’t trust this metal bitch for a second. You take Xian and this… thing to the MASA and wait for us.” 

“You would be willing to fight against Unit-1000 despite being vastly inferior?”

“The fuck is that supposed to mean? Don’t be a smartarse with me, I will do anything for Crystal.”

Nexus nodded and he used his tail to hand over his auto-shotgun to the pegasus. “I hope you don’t run into Unit-1000. It won’t be very effective, but a 12gauge might make it flinch. Good luck, sir.” He approached the couch. “Xian, your daddy is going to save your mum, and we are going to leave to a safe place.”

The young zebra filly looked up at the machine. “She’s not gonna try and hurt me, is she?” She asked quietly. Pixie winced at the filly’s question. 

“No, she’s on our side now.”

“O-ok,” Xian climbed onto Nexus’s back as he crouched down for her. When he stood back up, the little filly looked to Fruity as he holstered the shotgun across his back.

“I love you, daddy. Please save mummy.”

Fruity approached the filly and nuzzled her cheek softly. “Shhh, don’t worry sweetie. Everything will be ok. I promise I’ll get mummy back.”

Nexus nodded, and with Xian on his back, he and Pixie left the room to begin their evacuation while Fruity stayed behind. He looked back at the shotgun before leaving the room and making his way back towards the control room to look for Crystal.

XXXXX

After I fell over the railing and plummeted about a third of the way down the cavernous chamber, I had managed to roll myself over and open my wings and glide across to the other side. I had to avoid a central column that seemed to extend all the way down to the bottom along with a couple of catwalks. I aimed myself for a row of the containment capsules, and at the last second closed my wings so I could slip through a gap and land behind them. However, I didn’t close my wings fast enough and my right wing clipped one of the pods, which caused a fracture alert to go off in my HUD. I breathed heavily in fear and panic, as well as great pain. I had at least a third of my flesh ripped off my body at this point, and right now all I could feel was a burning pain from where my body had been abused. My heart was also beating a mile a minute. If it wasn’t for the restricted blood flow to my flesh, I probably would have already bled to death by now, but I assumed I had a safety feature installed that would prevent me from bleeding out if I lost all my flesh, since the organs necessary for my survival were inside my endoskeleton.

“This hurts so much-argh… can’t think straight anymore,” I groaned painfully.

I grunted as I pushed myself between the containment pods, being sure to avoid the numerous cables that poked out of the backs and sides. I crouched to be as low as I could, and cringed when I heard a tearing sound. As I looked to my left, I saw that the sleeve of my bloodied coat had caught on a piece of metal that was sticking out from the pod beside me, and tore at my coat as I crouched. 

“Aww, I really liked this coat.” I used my tail to unhook the torn sleeve while I crouch-walked to the front of the pods so I could look out into the cavernous chamber. The chamber was enormous and cylindrical in shape. I didn’t know how far down it went, but I estimated from top to bottom it must’ve been something around five hundred feet or more. It was stupidly huge. I had no idea how Colonel Ironside was able to get this place built without anypony taking any notice, but he somehow got it done and also hid… I did a double take as I looked around, looking up and then down at ALL of the blinking red lights that were lit on the containment pods. There were hundreds of them. Dr Pear wasn’t kidding. He literally had an army of these robots down here. If he was able to activate them all at once, control and co-ordinate them, Equestria as it is now would fall to his control. The very idea of being ruled by machines like this, who could eventually look like your best friend, was a deeply horrifying thought. 

While I continued to stare out into the huge vault, I caught movement to my right on the other side of the chamber, and saw the large alicorn-like robot descend from the upper platform by some stairs. I had to stay away from that thing, maybe get around it, work my way back up and lock it in the vault while it was down here looking for me. With a plan in mind, I skulked back behind the pods, tearing more of my coat (this time along the side which exposed my striped side), and began to creep around slowly towards the stairs on the opposite side.

“It was so dumb of me to even try to fight that thing. It’s a bloody alicorn model for crying out loud, of course it’ll kick my ass,” I whined quietly to myself while the pain grew as the broken and torn flesh was aggravated by my crouched movement.

I dashed across a gap between two sets of pods while supressing a cry of pain, and then froze when I heard a voice drift over to me from where I landed after I fell.

“Crystal? Crystal where are you?” The voice of Fruity called to me in worry.

“Fruity, no no, NO!” I cried in fear.

“I came back to help, where are you?” He called out.

I jumped out from the pods in a panic and smacked into the metal chest of Unit-1000. I fell onto my rump with a thud and screamed in alarm as the huge machine loomed over me. Again, if it had flesh I bet it would have been smirking at me.

“Oh I’m sorry. Were you looking for somepony?” It asked in a perfect imitation of Fruity’s voice.

My jaw dropped as I realised the machine used his voice to lure me out. “H-how?” I squeaked.

“Oh it was simple, really. I heard him speak back up in the control room. It was easy enough to record and calibrate his voice for my own use,” The machine explained again in that motherly tone as it lowered its slender neck so it could put its skull-like head level with mine. “Well this has been, hmm, a questionable experience, but there is no pleasure in torturing you any longer.”

My eyes widened at what that meant: she was going to finish it. I extended my wings and quickly jumped to the side, to jump over the railing to fly across to the other side. However, just as I jumped I felt a powerful and heavy smack to my right side, my damaged wing, and screamed. 

“WARNING! CATASTROPHIC FAILURE!”

The fractured metal wing bone shattered upon being struck, and since I was mid-jump I immediately began to fall down into the depths of the vault. I tried to flap my wings on instinct, but all it did was cause severe pain as the dead weight of my broken wing, now just a piece of lightweight metal and flesh, tore off my body from the wind resistance. This left me tumbling with only one wing.

As I fell, I was incapable of controlling my descent as my only remaining wing caused problems with stability, for in my state of panic, I was flapping it about. I reached out for any catwalk or platform that came into view to try and grab on to, only to crash into it or bounce off. In case of catwalks, I would smash right through them if I landed directly on them. I was so overwhelmed by pain that my pain receptor in my electronic brain shut itself down. It was a welcome relief to stop feeling the pain, but also a chilling reminder of how much of me was machine. The fall and the crashing against platforms and catwalks ripped away all but my right sleeve of my coat since I still had the shoulder guard for my right shoulder still fastened on, but the rest was now long gone. My flesh took some heavy damage as well, with plenty of deep cuts and scrapes from the hits as I fell. If it wasn’t for the fact that there were regular platforms and catwalks going all the way down from each level, falling from where I did to the bottom would have killed me. With the bottom in sight, a huge thick pipe came into view after I crashed through another catwalk, and by this point, my other wing had been broken and ripped off. I was grateful I couldn’t feel it because I would surely be paralysed by the pain. Like the rest of my fall, I slammed into the pipe hard.

“WARNING! MULTIPLE STRUCTURAL STRESS ALERTS DETECTED!”

“WARNING! VISUAL SESORY SYSTEM COMPROMISED!”

I lifted my head with a groan. The vision from my right eye was fuzzy and flickered badly. When I looked down at the pipe I laid on, I realised why. When I landed on it, my head had been flung forward hard against the pipe and the right side of my face had heavily impacted onto a large rivet. The gooey mess on the rivet told me it popped my organic eye and likely damaged my upgraded optical unit beneath.

“Uhhh, it can’t get any worse than this,” I whined, to which the pipe began to hiss, and although I couldn’t feel pain, I could still feel changes in temperature, and holy Celestia was it getting cold all of a sudden. With a quick glance to my ruined belly, I saw a growing spider web crack that was quickly getting coated in frost. As I didn’t want to get frozen to the pipe, I grunted and pushed myself off and fell another twenty feet and landed hard on my left hind leg and flank, crushing the leg.

“WARNING! LEFT HIND LEG COMPROMISED!”

A diagram of my hind leg appeared in my HUD and displayed multiple areas that had been damaged from my fall. All of the joints had seized up to prevent it from moving and worsening it as some of the damage was also structural. I grunted tiredly as I lay on the floor, panting for breath while I tried to figure out what to do next. I had to escape, but that was going to prove difficult with only three working legs and no wings. In the state I was in, I was in no shape whatsoever to even think about taking on Unit-1000 or trying to avoid it, but I had to try. I didn’t want to die down here and I couldn’t leave Xian without a mother. With a grunt of effort, I began to crawl for the stairs I could see in front of me, just as I began to hear the sound of dripping water.

I had managed to drag myself about ten feet, which took me several minutes in my damaged state, before the large machine with its flowing red, holographic yet glitchy mane came down the stairs and began to approach me. I cried out weakly and tried to crawl away backwards. The dripping had become a steady trickle by the time I pulled myself back to where I had landed, and the machine had stalked its way upon me again.

“Go away!” I cried pathetically as I continued to try and pull myself away.

I made it another foot before I felt a tingle go up my spine, and then found I couldn’t move. I looked down along my belly with its deep bloody gouge to see that Unit-1000 had stood on my tail to hold me in place.

“I’m sorry I-01… no, Crystal, but this ends here.” The machine spoke in an apologetic voice. It was surprising to me that it decided to call me by my name rather than my Infiltrator number. It shifted its frame for better stability on its three slender legs and raised its other forehoof ready to for an attack. The shift in its stance put it under the trickle of water, and after a couple of seconds, it shuddered and looked up.

“What’s this?” She asked out loud in mild surprise.

While it was distracted, I reached over to my tail, grabbed it and began to tug on it to try and free myself from its hoof. 

“Warning! Extreme negative temperature detected!” A male electronic voice sounded from the large machine.

As soon as the warning sounded, there was a sudden crunch and the sound of shattering glass before a cascade of liquid began to pour itself down upon Unit-1000 in a large torrent. Unit-1000 reared up in surprise as it was bathed in some freezing cold liquid, and I used this as my opportunity to escape and crawled away as fast as I could.  The machine was so surprised and confused by the sudden deluge of liquid, it didn’t react to my escape for a good minute, and by then a large puddle had formed on the floor, and ice and frost had begun to coat the robot.

When I saw how the machine was beginning to be coated in frost and ice due to the liquid that no doubt came from the pipe I landed on, I suddenly realised what the liquid was.

“Liquid Nitrogen!” I squeaked as a bad feeling washed over me.

The machine managed to regain its bearings as its gaze locked onto me again and begun to trudge through the growing pool of liquid nitrogen towards me. However, as it stomped through the growing lake its movements began to slow and the lights in its eyes, body, and holographic mane and tail began to flicker as more ice and frost built up.

I reached the stairs and collapsed against the bottom step, huffing and puffing in exhaustion. The way the cavern floor was shaped prevented the liquid nitrogen from spreading any closer to me, but the towering machine was still getting closer. It raised an ice-coated foreleg and reached for me slowly. I cringed as the sharp hoof tip scratched deeply across my left eye, narrowly avoiding my eye, before it stopped after it pulled away from my cheek. I gasped in surprise when I saw its flickering mane and eyes go dark as Unit-1000 shutdown.

I flopped back in relief and cried tears of joy. While I enjoyed my momentary reprieve, I was spurred back into action when a new alert from the Facility sounded.

“WARNING! INSUFFICIENT REACTOR COOLANT DETECTED!”

“Oh, that can’t be good,” I gasped as I began to try and struggle onto three legs. 

I grit my teeth in concentration as I turned away from the frozen Unit-1000 and hauled myself onto my three working legs. I bit my lip to stop myself from moaning as they took my weight. My HUD flashed with multiple stress alerts as I begun to slowly waddle my way up the stairs. My progress was slow since I had to compensate for a lack of balance and stability without my left hindleg.

I panted and groaned with discomfort as I reached the top of the stairs, bringing me to the first sublevel of the storage vault. I looked up and I swear my face must have paled at the distance I would need to cover to reach to the top where the door to the exit was. I could barely see the ceiling. It was that far up. With how damaged I currently was, this was going to take a long, long time. I had a whole new respect for ponies that walked about and lived with three legs. They really did overcome a challenge.

“WARNING! INSUFFICIENT REACTOR COOLANT… CORE TEMPERATURE RISING… MELTDOWN IMMINENT!” 

“Oh no!” I gaped in horror at the alert and began to push my stressed limbs harder.

“REPEAT, MELTDOWN IMMINENT! PLEASE EVACUATE THE FACILITY!”

I hobbled along the catwalk as I searched for the next stairway, with worry and panic filling my heart. If I was scared of Unit-1000 killing me before, I was now even more afraid that I would not make it out of the facility by the time its reactor went critical and blew. 

“Crystal, where the fuck are you?” I heard the voice of Fruity call out to me from above.

I paused and listened, straining to hear for any mechanical noises in the background or anything out of the ordinary. Unit-1000 got the jump on me before by using my colt-friend’s voice, so I wasn’t about to let it happen again. 

“This isn’t funny Crys, we need to go!” Fruity yelled, sounding panicked.

That had to be him. So far, only Fruity had ever called me “Crys”, meaning there would be no way for the machines to know that name could be used as bait. I hobbled over to the railing that overlooked the core of the chamber and looked up, and to my great relief and confusion was Fruity. He was flying back and forth from platform to platform, catwalk to catwalk in search of me. I was happy he was here for me, but didn’t I tell him to help Nexus?

“Fruity, down here!” I shouted up to him with a wave of a foreleg. My voice came out more electronic and synthesised than my normal tone of voice; more proof of how damaged I was. 

The pegasus immediately looked down and dove towards me. When he opened his wings and came to hover before me, his eyes widened in shock and horror at the state I was in.

“Holy Creator, what-what happened to you?!” He gasped in shock.

“I got my ass kicked, that’s what,” I groaned.

“There’s getting your ass kicked and absolutely fucking battered!” 

“Uhh, please, no jokes, not now.” 

“S-sorry…” He trailed off as he tilted his head to the side and then gasped. “Y-your wings are gone.”

“Can we talk about this after we get out of here, please?”

“Uh, yeah.” He landed beside me and helped to support me as we quickly, or as quickly as my damaged state would allow, began to make our way up.

“W-where is Nexus a-and Xian?” I asked the struggling pegasus as he pushed at my rump to help me up more stairs.

“Nexus has her, she’s safe. You don’t have to worry about her.” 

It partially calmed my nerves to know our daughter was safe in the hooves of Nexus, so now I could focus on getting out of here without the fear of wondering if my foal was ok.

XXXXX

Several minutes after succumbing to the cold of the liquid nitrogen, the machine reactivated and shattered the ice that clung to its body. Unit-1000 quickly stepped forward while it looked around, its sensory system detecting a shift in the reactor’s behaviour and it wasn’t good.

“It is about time you woke up,” Colonel Ironside said with clear annoyance directly into the machine’s head. “The coolant to the reactor has been disrupted and the Spark Reactor is set to meltdown.” 

The machine stood there, not knowing what to do at this point with the knowledge that its home and sleeping comrades were to be destroyed.

“Centuries of planning and preparation wasted.” Ironside growled angrily. “All that work, and for what, a good for nothing failure of an Infiltrator who’s only purpose to us was to give us the spell.” There was an audible sigh. “It can’t end just like that, so I’ve decided to upload the spell matrix for the Flesh Binding Spell into your memory core. I want you to continue my work, to fulfil your destiny as the new Princess of this world. I-01 and her companions no longer matter anymore, your survival is paramount. Escape the facility and live. Find Upgrade Station Alpha, it is the only place close that’ll be able to grant you the ability to graft flesh to your endoskeleton. I also have one last thing for you: Unit-4 has been released to your control, it will make a good companion to you. Now hurry.”

“Can you not upload yourself to Unit-4 and escape with me, sir?” Unit-1000 asked in concern for its creator.

“Sadly, I cannot. The device to upload myself was on the main computer, and it has been fried.”

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“Don’t be. You did your part and allowed me to get what I wanted. Everything had gone accordingly, but I couldn’t have foreseen when building this place that I would need better pipe placement for the reactor coolant.” 

Unit-1000 bowed its head. “I will do my best for you sir. Thank you… thank you for giving me life.” It spoke with gratefulness and respect, before it turned and began to ascend.

XXXXX

By the time we made it to the ground floor, the whole Facility rumbled and quaked as the overheating reactor set off explosions deep within the Facility. During the climb to the top, I got the sensation of the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end like I was being watched again, but when I looked I couldn’t see anything, not even the glow of the red eyes from one of those machines. I chalked that up to just me being so damaged that my senses were screwed up. It took us half-an-hour to climb up to the top, and by then we were utterly exhausted, especially Fruity since he had been trying to support and push me the whole way. 

“Ugh… just the… long ass… corridor… to go now,” Fruity panted as we began to make our way towards the vault’s exit.

“Won’t be long now,” I groaned, although I was still in a state of internal panic about the reactor about to have a meltdown.

“We should… hurry… the reactor can’t have… long left.”

I just nodded with a grim expression as I hobbled along. Surprisingly, just as we entered the control room a pink unicorn was picking herself up from the floor. She groaned as she looked off to a broken object on the floor by the far corner. It was the Pulse Wave Emitter, or what was left of it, as it was smashed beyond recognition.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Fruity demanded sternly.

“Huh?” I asked in surprise as I had not expected that reaction at all.

“S-sorry Mr Fruity, Nexus told me to come back and assist you and…” She trailed off when she looked at me, and her eyes widened in shock at my damaged state. “Oh my, um, and err, I-01-eek! I-I mean Crystal, but something set off some sort of EM trap and knocked me out for a spell.”

“What do you mean?” Fruity inquired.

“I dunno, I saw something when I walked in here, then there was a pop and a flash, and everything went dark.”

“I-01?!” I gasped as I looked at the unicorn. “Only these robots and that guy in the computers have called me that. Are you one of them?”

The unicorn wilted and looked like she was about to panic at the hard stare I gave her before Fruity stepped forward. “We don’t have time for this, we needed to get out of here ten minutes ago, Unit-03… um, Pixie was it?” Fruity asked before he resumed. “You can tell us what happened again in more detail later. You can support Crystal’s weight since you’re a robot like her. Carry her and let’s get the hell out of here before the reactor blows.”

“By our estimates, the reactor should have blown by now,” The robot said as she lowered herself onto her belly to let me climb onto her back.

“We better get out of here like now!” Fruity urged.

I climbed onto the disguised robot’s back and wrapped my forelegs around her neck for support but tighter than I really should. I suppose the anger I felt for what this robot did to us earlier, especially foalnapping Xian, was still having an effect on me. 

“Let’s hurry to our rendezvous!” Fruity yelled, and with that Unit-03 stood up with little effort despite me on her back and galloped beside Fruity.

“Please ma’am, not so tight,” She whimpered as we hurriedly made our way towards the main door.

I grumbled but relented, instead tightly gripping her barrel when the Facility shook from another explosion from deep inside.

“WARNING! MELTDOWN IMMINENT! PLEASE EVACUATE THE FACILITY!” 

“Yes, we get it!” Fruity yelled as we rounded the final bend and then skidded to a stop as the door to the outside world was closed.

“I swear I didn’t touch it when I came in,” Unit-03 cried.

“Who… when did this close?” I cried in alarm.

Fruity rushed up to the control panel and began to mash the door release button, but no matter how many times he hit the button it didn’t respond, and the heavy steel and concrete door remained firmly in place.

“Oh, fuck this!” Fruited yelled in aggravation, pulled Nexus’s auto-shotgun off his back with his hooves and aimed the gun at the control panel.

“Fruity no!” 

My cry fell on deaf ears as my coltfriend fired a blast of buckshot into the control panel and shredded it. The panel exploded in a shower of plastic, metal and sparks as it was totally destroyed by the spray of lead pellets.

To our great surprise the loud chime sounded, and the door began to slowly open. I felt relief wash over me now that we were not going to be locked in this tomb while it exploded and kill us all. Once the door was open enough we squeezed through the gap and ran.

“Run! Run like your life depends on it!” Fruity yelled as soon as we were all outside in the fresh air.

The ground quaked more violently than before and the machine carrying me didn’t waste another moment. It began to run as fast as it could while it carried me, and Fruity jumped into the air to fly alongside us. I watched Unit-03’s disguised face as she ran; her expression was in total panic, and it twisted and contorted to various levels of despair. It wasn’t until we reached the base of Meadowlark Hill that her expression showed utter horror, and she poured as much of her strength as she could into her legs to push her along faster. 

“That’s it!” She screamed, and a moment later the entre hill shook as it was rocked by an earth-shattering explosion deep underground. The shockwave of the explosion was enough to blast loose dirt off rocks, uproot small desert trees and even crack some large rocks. I looked back and watched as a plume of fire and smoke began to shoot out of where the door to the facility was, creating a geyser of fire into the afternoon sky. Then, the whole hill began to rise. 

“What the fuck!” I gaped in shock. I’ve never seen anything like what was taking place before me. Only in fiction have I read or seen something that had come close.

We stopped running so we could just gape at the spectacle when we made it to the dual carriage way, halfway between the hill and the MASA HQ. 

“Now there’s something you don’t see every day,” Fruity commented as the hill swelled larger and larger. It pushed soil up and broke apart, reshaping the whole area as the dirt and rocks were dislodged and tumbled down its growing dome-like slopes. The hill had lost its once pointy tip and shallow gradient slopes, and become a near perfect dome, all the while it spewed smoke and fire from the Facility’s entrance.

“Looks like a big spot ready to pop,” Fruity joked.

I was about to reply to his joke when the jet of fire suddenly stopped, and the deformed Meadowlark Hill let out a groan. Then, the entire hill collapsed in on itself. It disappeared into a deep crater where the Facility had once been, now destroyed and buried under tonnes of rock and dirt.

“It’s over. The Facility, the robots, Ironside, all gone. We’re free!” I cheered.

“Yeah. Come on, let’s get you back to Xian and then to Dr Pear so she can get you fixed up,” Fruity said as he looked me over.

“Yeah, that sounds great.”

We hurriedly resumed our run to the MASA building, but now in higher spirits. As we arrived at the building, we could sense right away something wasn’t right as Nexus was looking around in a worried fashion. At first, I thought he lost Xian, but I saw her on his back as he rushed about so that ruled out my daughter being missing. So what had him so worried?

“What has you in such a tizzy?” Fruity asked.

“Oh sir… Ma’am, you made it.” Nexus rushed up to us. “Oh, you’ve been extensively damaged, lost some critical components. Hmm, I think Dr Pear will be your best bet to get the repairs you need.”

“Already said that, Chrome-Dome.” 

“Oh right. Sorry. Anyway,” He turned around so Xian could see me. I also gestured for Unit-03 to let me down. I grunted as my stressed limbs took my weight again and stood, my auto-repair system having repaired my hindleg enough to unseize it and get it working again, but it was still fragile. I smiled the best I could to the filly that looked at me in shock. I wilted when she shied away, but I couldn’t blame her. Half of my face was missing, an eye was gone, and there was a big enough hole in my cheek that you could see right into my mouth. There was also the rest of my ripped and torn flesh all along my body. I must’ve looked like one of those feral ghouls to the poor filly.

I looked at the filly softly. “I-its ok sweetie, it’s me. It’s mummy.” I spoke as soothingly as my damaged electronic voice allowed.

The young filly looked back to me with wide eyes and stared. As she continued to stare, tears began to form in her eyes before she launched herself from Nexus’s back and hugged my right foreleg, which had survived from being ripped or torn.

“Mummy, I was so scared. You-you came for me,” The filly whimpered as she began to cry.

I gently stroked her mane with a hoof soothingly. “Of course, I would go to Tartarus and back for you.”

Fruity blankly stared back as he elaborated. “One of the two alicorns that created the portal we used to get to Rust-Bucket City.”

“Ah.”

“She’s gone.” 

“What do you mean she’s gone?” Fruity asked, surprised.

“I’ve looked all around and inside the MASA HQ for her but there is no sign of her. I did tell her to wait for us here,” Nexus explained. “She might have gone back to the Facility at some point, I don’t know, but she isn’t here, and I’ve seen no evidence of a struggle so she wasn’t chased off either.”

“Well, shit. That means we’ve got a long ass trek on our hooves, unless little miss pink over there can teleport us back to the Alicorn Sanctuary,” Fruity groaned.

“Who me?” Pixie asked when all eyes fell on her. “Eek! Um, I-I can’t teleport all of you, it’s really difficult to teleport more than one over great distances and my powercells still haven’t full recharged yet.”

“Terrific. Guess we’re walking. Well, this’ll be a trip.” 

“Yeah, but, at least now we don’t have to look over our shoulder anymore,” I said with a smile.

“True that. Alright then, we better head off now if we’re to get there before tomorrow night.”

I nodded, and we formed a tight group. I guessed Unit-03 or Pixie would join us for now, but I couldn’t trust her at the moment because of what she did. As I settled in next to Fruity, he laid his wing across my withers before he pulled my worn hat from his duster and plopped it onto my head. I smiled and nuzzled him affectionately. My smile grew as little Xian squeezed through between our legs so she could walk between us, like we were a family. Now that the Facility, the threat of Ironside and his machines were over, I could finally think about the future and settling down with my new family.

As we left the MASA HQ grounds, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end again and I looked behind me, towards where the Facility had once been. The crater in the distance was billowing smoke and dust after the collapse, but for a brief moment, I swore I saw a pair glowing red lights, but they were gone after I blinked. Did I really see something or was it my damaged state making me see stuff?